HR Manager's Legal Alert for Supervisors

MANAGER WATCHES WOMAN BEING SEXUALLY HARASSED, THEN FIRES HER. The scenario: Shortly after starting a job, a woman became concerned about the harassing behavior of a male coworker. The man repeatedly commented on her hair and said things such as, “You look good” and “Look at those eyes.” The coworker also made inappropriate comments about oral sex after customers ordered hot dogs. But the offensive behavior wasn’t limited to words. The male coworker often rubbed the woman’s back without her consent. When she told him to stop, the man said he couldn’t help himself because she was so soft. Things took a dramatic turn for the worse when the male coworker approached the woman from behind and began to make a humping motion while pushing a plastic container into her posterior. The woman whirled around and declared that she’d punch him if he touched her again. A male supervisor witnessed the humping incident. About 15 minutes later, he called the woman into his office and fired her, saying, “This isn’t working.” Legal challenge: The woman sued for a hostile work environment motivated by her gender. The ruling: The company lost. The court refused to toss out the lawsuit. The judge said the woman encountered verbal and physical harassment almost every day. Plus, a supervisor witnessed an incident of severe physical harassment – the humping incident – but fired the female victim rather than her male harasser. The skinny: If you observe inappropriate conduct, don’t take disciplinary action against anyone involved in the incident until an investigation has been completed. Otherwise, you’re risking a costly court ruling against your employer. Cite: Sfanos v. Cranberry Crossroads Dining, U.S. District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania, No. 2:23-cv-1502, 11/19/24. (From the Jan. 3, 2025, issue of HR Manager’s Legal Alert for Supervisors.) #sexualharassment #hrmanager #hr #supervisors #training #easytoread #newsletter #newsletters

LGBTQIA+ WORKERS REPORT JUMP IN BIAS. A word to the wise: Your ongoing efforts to stamp out discrimination against LGBTQIA+ workers not only help reduce the chances of a costly bias lawsuit, but they also help improve the productivity of LGBTQIA+ crew members. That’s your takeaway from a recent Randstad survey of 355 LGBTQIA+ U.S. employees. The survey revealed that 51% of respondents said they’ve endured discriminatory acts or attitudes due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Randstad suggested that the impact of these biased attitudes and behaviors is significant, with 45% of respondents indicating that they’re less motivated and productive when they’re unable to fully express their sexual orientation or gender identity at work. In addition, 44% of LGBTQIA+ staffers said their identity has negatively affected their careers. In some cases, workers have switched jobs because of their identity, with 41% stating that they’ve left an organization in search of a more inclusive workplace. Dig deeper: According to the survey, workplaces are becoming less inclusive for LGBTQIA+ employees. In fact, 41% of the respondents reported an increase in bias, and 40% said they feel more isolated now than they did five years ago. ^ From the December 13th issue of HR Manager's Legal Alert for Supervisors.

ACCOMMODATIONS ARE CRITICAL TO JOB SUCCESS. If you’re unsure whether it’s worthwhile to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled staff members, consider a newly released report showing that 58% of U.S. workers who’ve been provided with a disability accommodation think that the accommodation has been critical to their success in the workplace. The results of the survey of 9,000 U.S. job seekers and current employees conducted by Inclusively revealed that only 18% of those who’ve been provided with an accommodation didn’t think it had been critical to their workplace success, while 24% didn’t know or were unsure whether the accommodation had been critical to success. Even though most respondents found value in accommodations, the survey also indicated that many workers think the process of seeking an accommodation can be cumbersome. For instance, 31% of those who revealed a disability said the disclosure process was difficult and 15% said the process was very difficult. Action steps: Make sure everyone knows how to disclose a disability. You should also periodically remind staffers that you’ll work with them to identify accommodations. Reason: You don’t want to find out a staffer was reluctant to seek an accommodation only after the person has filed a disability bias lawsuit. (From the upcoming November 22, 2024, issue of HR Manager’s Legal Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click https://lnkd.in/eM5jmim8.) * Your trial will be a 2 month, no obligation review. You’ll receive your first issue in PDF format via email. After we email the second issue, we’ll mail a continuation notice to your employer. That can be paid to continue the subscription for a full year of 24 issues. However, if you don’t want to subscribe annually, you can disregard that continuation notice and the issues will stop coming when your free two month trial period is over. I hope you find our publication to be a valuable resource for you moving forward! Keep in mind that if anyone makes even just one mistake that leads to a discrimination lawsuit, it could cost your organization thousands – or even millions – of dollars. For the small investment in our publication, you can rest easy knowing you’ve done everything you can to protect your crew from discrimination & prevent damaging litigation. If you have any questions for me, please don’t hesitate to reach out! In addition to LinkedIn, you can visit our website at www.iobp.com, or contact our office manager via phone at 866-572-1352. #legal #hr #hrmanager #hrdirector #humanresources #humanresource #disability #discrimination #ada #accommodation #accommodations #litigation #lawsuit #lawsuits #publication #publications #manager #management #hrdirectors #humanresourcedirector #humanresourcedirectors #humanresourcemanager #humanresourcemanagers #valuable #resource #review #job #success #jobs #workplace

WOMAN UNHAPPY ABOUT DRAWING THAT SHOWED OBAMA AS A MONKEY. The scenario: A Black woman was unhappy when she saw a drawing that depicted former President Barack Obama as a monkey posted on a bulletin board. The woman didn’t say anything about the drawing, and it was removed a short time later. Another time, the woman was upset when, during a presentation by the United Way asking for donations, a white coworker pointed to several photos of poor African children and said, “I don’t give to people like that.” Around the same time, another white colleague said African Americans are dumb. The Black staff member was also troubled when a white male coworker speaking to her asked whether he “sounded like a n-gg-r.” The woman didn’t say anything about the comment because she felt that kind of language was commonplace in the workplace. Unable to deal with the discriminatory comments, the woman quit. After she resigned, the HR manager asked to meet with her so she could investigate the woman’s claims about alleged bias, but the Black woman refused to be interviewed, saying she had no interest in being part of a “sham investigation.” 📋 Legal challenge: The Black woman sued for race discrimination. ⚖️ The ruling: The company won. The court said the woman didn’t suffer an adverse employment action because of her race, noting that she quit. And the judge said the discriminatory comments weren’t enough to justify her resignation as a constructive discharge. 📌 The skinny: Remember: Workers who resign a job and sue have to show that the biased behavior was so intolerable that they had no choice but to quit, which is often hard to prove. 📍 Cite: Bradley v. Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, U.S. District Court, D. Kansas, No. 2:23-cv-2088, 8/20/24. 🖊️ ^ From the Oct. 18, 2024, issue of HR Manager’s Legal Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click https://lnkd.in/e_7AKbgE. ✔️ Keep in mind that your trial will be a 2 month, no obligation review. You’ll receive your first issue in PDF format via email. After we email the second issue, we’ll mail a continuation notice to your employer. That can be paid to continue the subscription for a full year of 24 issues. However, if you don’t want to subscribe annually, you can disregard that notice. ✔️✔️ The goal of our trial process is for you to see whether this publication is something you’d want to eventually start paying for. Unfortunately, even though we hope to help as many lives as we can, we can’t just keep sending out free content forever - we have employees that work extremely hard & deserve to get paid. 📅 We know you'll find our publication to be a valuable resource for you moving forward. Keep in mind that if anyone makes even just one mistake that leads to a lawsuit, it could cost your organization thousands – or even millions – of dollars. #obama #hrmanager #newsletter

HERE'S WHAT TO DO WHEN A STAFF MEMBER ASKS TO BRING HER DOG INTO THE WORKPLACE 🐶. If a member of your crew asked to bring her dog into the workplace, how would you respond? Keep in mind that certain dogs could be considered a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which means you can’t just turn down her request. 🐕 Rather, you’re required under the ADA to engage in the interactive process to determine whether the woman should be allowed to bring her dog to work. 🐕🦺 The first thing to find out is whether the dog is considered a service animal or an emotional support animal – the difference will play a big role in shaping your response. ♿ Service animals, which must be dogs only, have been trained to handle tasks such as guiding blind people, alerting deaf workers, or pulling a wheelchair. ❣️ Emotional support animals, which can be any type of pet, haven’t been trained to perform specific tasks. Rather, they provide the person with emotional or psychological comfort. 🌱 The difference between the two classifications of animals is important because you’re legally required to consider letting the woman bring her service animal into the workplace, but you can usually deny a request for an emotional support animal. 💰 When considering the worker’s request for a service animal, you must engage in the interactive process. Remember that you have limited ability to turn down a request for a service dog, unless you can show that the animal would create an undue hardship because it could be a threat to health and safety, could lead to significant workplace disruption, or could cause a financial burden. 📃 You can, however, ask the worker to provide medical documents to prove the need for the service animal, and certification records for the dog to show that it has been trained to perform specific tasks to help the woman perform her job. 📨 ^ From the Oct. 4, 2024, issue of HR Manager’s Legal Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click https://lnkd.in/e_7AKbgE FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.IOBP.COM #dog #medical #emotional #support #animal #emotionalsupport #animals #emotionalsupportanimals #ada #reasonable #accommodation #publication #newsletter #service #tasks #task #job #woman #certification #legal #litigation #disability #discrimination #prevention #accommodations #trial #subscription #newsletters #editorial #b2b #hrmanager #supervisors #supervisors #hrmanagers #hrdirector #hrdirectors #humanresource #humanresources

FOCUS: MICROAGGRESSIONS. Here’s a statistic that might surprise you: More than one-quarter of U.S. employees who responded to a recent survey reported that they’d definitely experienced a microaggression at work; another 22% said they might have suffered a microaggression on the job. These numbers show that microaggressions are fairly common in the workplace, and they help explain why you need to respond to them quickly in order to reduce the chances that someone who suffers a microaggression will pursue a costly lawsuit. Microaggressions, which are subtle behaviors that lead someone to feel devalued, can take many different forms, including microassaults, which are overt actions meant to cause harm, e.g., hanging up a photo of a scantily clad woman. Another type of microaggression is a microinsult, which isn’t intended to cause harm and is often driven by unconscious bias or cultural ignorance. Example: Telling a Black person that he or she is articulate, which implies that Black people aren’t expected to be articulate. And microaggressions sometimes take the form of microinvalidations – talking over someone or blatantly interrupting a coworker. For instance, a male employee might “manterrupt” a female colleague. As a supervisor focused on stamping out unacceptable conduct such as microaggressions, it’s important to act promptly and decisively when you become aware of a potential microaggression that has upset a crew member. Speak to the person who has committed the microaggression, and carefully explain to him or her the difference between intent and impact. Example: “I know you didn’t intend for your comment to come off as discriminatory, but your coworker perceived the statement to be offensive to her national origin.” 🗣️ ^^ From the Sept. 20, 2024, issue of HR Manager’s Legal Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click https://lnkd.in/eM5jmim8. To learn more about us, please visit www.iobp.com. #prevent #litigation #litigationprevention #microaggression #microaggressions #hrmanager #hr #hrexecutive #hrexecutives #work #lawsuit #lawsuits #coworker #worker #workers #employees #employee #manager #management #offensive #statement #statements #national #origin #nation #discrimination

DIABETIC EMPLOYEE ACCUSED OF MISUSING HIS ALOTTED TIME OFF🕰. The following is a fictionalized dialogue based off of a real U.S. court case: “We terminated Ron because he misused his approved leave time,” said Supervisor Margie Brunton. “How did Ron supposedly misuse his time off under the FMLA?” asked HR Manager Alan Frankel. “As you know,” replied Margie, “Ron is diabetic. Several years ago, he submitted medical paperwork to support his request for intermittent time off under the FMLA specifically for attacks of hypoglycemia. We approved his request. However, Ron recently used intermittent time off for neuropathy, a different condition that’s also related to his diabetes. When we asked him what was going on, he said he hadn’t experienced a hypoglycemic attack in more than two years. Yet, during that time, he often used intermittent FMLA leave. We terminated him once we concluded that he’d misled us about his use of leave time.” “Ron contends that he had leave approval for any condition related to his diabetes, not just hypoglycemia,” said Alan. “He’s suing us, contending that we retaliated against him because he used his approved FMLA leave for neuropathy.” “Ron’s understanding of what was covered under his approved leave time is different from our understanding of what was covered,” said Margie. “At the time we let him go, we had an honest belief that he’d misused his leave.” “It sounds to me like Ron needed to make it clear precisely what he was seeking when he requested intermittent time off for his diabetes,” said Alan. “We’ll challenge this case.” Did the company win? Yes. The company won. The court dismissed the lawsuit. The judge said the employer was justified in terminating the crew member based on its honest belief that he’d misused his intermittent time off under the FMLA. While there was some question about exactly what conditions were approved for intermittent leave, there was little doubt that the employer fired the staffer based on its honest belief that he misled his supervisor. As a result, the employer was legally allowed to fire the crew member, despite the uncertainty about whether he had leave approval for any condition caused by his diabetes or for just attacks related to hypoglycemia. WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU When a staffer submits a request for intermittent leave under the FMLA, make sure you – and the worker – have a solid understanding of what specific conditions are approved as reasons for the time off. If a staffer seeks approval for a range of conditions related to one underlying disability, his or her medical paperwork must include all those conditions. If, however, he or she needs approval for only certain conditions related to the underlying disability, the doctor’s paperwork must spell that out. Key: The medical documentation must be clear and consistent. Based on Shipton v. Baltimore Gas. 🖇 ^ From the August 23, issue. To start your no-obligation trial, click https://lnkd.in/e_7AKbgE

FOCUS: HIRING DISCRIMINATION ~~ How you can reduce the chances a rejected job candidate will sue for bias. ~~ As hard as you work to eliminate discrimination involving your current crew members, don’t forget about the importance of avoiding the appearance of bias when you’re hiring people. Remember: Rejected job seekers who think they were discriminated against because of a protected characteristic such as age, race, or gender have as much right to file a lawsuit as do current employees. One of the best ways to reduce the appearance of discrimination during the hiring process is to develop a standardized set of criteria for the position. Before you start recruiting people, decide what skills and traits are necessary for the job. Create a list of standardized criteria that could be applied to everyone, then formulate interview questions based on those criteria. Once you begin the interviews, ask everyone the same set of standardized questions. Use an interview scorecard to grade each candidate’s response to the questions on a scale that has been predetermined. This approach helps reduce the chances that someone will later claim the interview questions were biased. It’s also important to avoid assumptions about job seekers. For instance, don’t assume an older person will demand a higher salary or struggle with technology. Steer clear of familiarity bias – favoring a certain candidate because you share something in common, e.g., you went to the same school or root for the same football team. And, of course, don’t dismiss a job seeker because of a trait you don’t like, e.g., he or she attended a rival school. Bonus: Document everything you do during the hiring process, from the formulation of the selection criteria to the reasoning you used to make the final decision. The documentation will come in handy should a rejected job candidate later pursue a discrimination lawsuit. 🧐 ^ From the August 23, 2024, issue of HR Managers Legal Alert for Supervisors. You can visit https://lnkd.in/e_7AKbgE & get the next four issues of our newsletter at no cost to your employer + no requirement to cancel. #email #statement #statements #employee #employees #culture #unprofessional #professional #court #different #firing #termination #hr #hrmanager #hrmanagers #humanresource #humanresources #humanresourcemanager #humanresourdirector #hrdirector #hrdirectors #supervisors #supervisor #education #knowledge #litigation #prevention #hiring #hire #process

It’s never a good idea to refer to a foreign-born member of your staff as “different” ❌. What happened: A crew member born in Egypt was chastised for sending an unprofessional email. During a meeting to discuss the email, his manager said the man was “different” and that he needed to adapt to the culture of the U.S. The Egyptian employee was fired later that same day. 🌍 Legal challenge: The worker sued for national-origin bias. 📧 Company’s response: His email was unprofessional. 🌎 Ruling: The company lost. The court said the statements that the employee was different and that he needed to adapt to U.S. culture revealed bias. 🌐 Cite: Abdelhamid v. Lane Construction, U.S. District Court, D.C., No. 23-2472, 8/12/24.   🖥 From the August 23, 2024, issue of HR Managers Legal Alert for Supervisors. You can visit https://lnkd.in/e_7AKbgE & get the next four issues of our newsletter at no cost to your employer + no requirement to cancel. #email #egypt #national #origin #bias #statement #statements #employee #employees #culture #unprofessional #professional #court #different #firing #termination #hr #hrmanager #hrmanagers #humanresource #humanresources #humanresourcemanager #humanresourdirector #hrdirector #hrdirectors #supervisors #supervisor #education #knowledge #litigation #prevention